


dancing in the moonlight

by slytherinschaser



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Humor, Marauder's Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:01:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27488518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slytherinschaser/pseuds/slytherinschaser
Summary: James Potter discovers face masks thanks to Lily Evans, and Sirius Black has thoughts about that
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter
Comments: 4
Kudos: 26





	dancing in the moonlight

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Birthday to the biggest TLAT/Jily hoe I know, Sarah! This is for you!

It had been a tradition since they were in first year. Every first Friday night of the month, the girls of the 1978 graduating class of Hogwarts finished dinner in a rush and then locked themselves up in their dormitory for the night, engaging in an age long ritual called spa night. Living in a boarding school meant they didn’t get to enjoy the sleepovers other girls their age did, but Lily had informed them about what sleepovers involved and at the young age of 11, they made it a law within their group, that they would never miss a single month.

The nights involved popcorn and chocolate- both of the solid and drinking variety. It involved truth or dare, and talking about crushes. It involved nail polish. It involved makeup and wacky hairstyles. As they grew of age, it also involved firewhiskey shots and cocktails, something Lily never fully approved of, being head girl, but accepted on their sacred nights. No matter how wild the nights got, it always ended the same way. The five girls would be laying on their backs on the floor, with their heads in a circle next to each other. Each girl’s face would be covered in a face mask, the type alternating each month, and eyes covered in cucumber slices, as they basked in each other’s presence. It was comforting, to know that no matter the craziness of the school year, they had a mini family within the dorm, a sisterhood that had grown for years.

And so that’s where Lily Evans found herself on the first Friday of November her 7th year at Hogwarts. Being head girl, she’d found her days completely filled between classes, prepping for NEWTs and her responsibilities, so this night was a nice escape from it all. James, having had a mental growth spurt over the summer (or maybe that came along with the head boy badge), had agreed to handle all the emergencies that crept up, and Lily was free to spend time gossiping with her friends.

The night was winding to an end and the girls lay in a circle, each quiet, basking in each other presence.

“Marley,” Dorcas started, curiosity in her voice. But what she was about to ask, they would never find out.

The door to their dorm burst open and in ran the head boy. Before any of them could say anything or protest his arrival, he started speaking.

“Evans! Listen I know I told you I could handle everything but we have an emergen-” he paused. He had finally looked at the girls. They could see his brain slow down and his eyes grow big as he took in the girls’ green faces.

“Yes Potter? What’s the emergency,” Lily asked calmly, trying to fight the laughter that was building inside of her at the look of upmost confusion on his face.

“Lily…” he whispered.

“James,” she responded, watching the confusion turn to fear as he registered her using his first name, something that hadn’t happened since before he’d pulled his first prank in first year.

Lily took a second to enjoy the moment. This year, she’d found James to be more tolerable, like the boy she’d known for a couple short months before she found out he had pranked Severus. But her and Severus were no longer friends, his true personality having come out throughout his time in Slytherin and erupting after their Defense Against the Dark Arts OWL in 5th year. And after that, she’d cared a little less about the Marauders- about James’- pranking, maybe because she no longer cared about them specifically targeting Slytherins, or because they’d started pranking a little less. And this year, James had really stepped up to the bar as Head Boy. She’d been confused by the choice, but his natural leadership came out during meetings, and he was well liked and respected by most of the student body.

It was even safe to say she was developing a small crush on the boy, but years of rejecting him meant that she was weary of those feelings. But she was coming around to it. And where she was at currently? The next time he asked her to Hogsmeade in a non over the top manner, she might even say yes.

She watched him flounder for a couple more moments before standing up and walking over to him. She raised her hand and waved it in front of his face. When he didn’t respond, instead continuing to stare at the green stuff on her cheeks and forehead, she snapped her fingers. He jumped slightly.

“James Potter, what did you say about an emergency?” she asked, now that she had his attention.

“It’s Peeves- he’s clogged all the girls’ toilets and they’re flooding,” he replied, still staring in confusion.

She quickly pulled out her wand and waved it over her face, immediately removing the facemask and walking over to the door. She noticed he wasn’t following her and when she looked back, she noticed the now almost permanent look of confusion still there as he looked at the faces of the four girls still laying on the floor and then back to her now bare face. She walked back towards him and grabbed his arm with her hand, dragging him out of the dorm and towards the bathroom that was flooding.

Over the next few minutes, while walking there, James was oddly quiet and she saw him look over at her face a few times and scrunching his own. Seeing him so out of it was amusing at first but she was ready to have him back to normal and so she told him, “It was a face mask Potter. Muggles apply them once in a while to help their skin look nice.”

He tilted his head while examining her face.

“Your skin _does_ look nice,” he paused for a moment, and then continued “but your skin always looks nice.”

She flushed. It wasn’t the first time he’d complimented her, and she was willing to bet anything it wouldn’t be the last, but it was still nice to hear, and with him not making any large public display of affection, it felt more genuine.

So without much heat behind her words, she muttered “Shut up Potter.”

* * *

“Hey Padfoot?” James was laying on his bed, hands behind his head, staring straight up at the ceiling.

“Yes Prongs?” Sirius looked up from the motorcycle magazine he was reading, sitting cross legged at the head of his bed.

“Have you heard of face masks?” Remus sat up in his bed, looking at James strangely.

“Face masks?” Sirius replied, closing his magazine.

“Yes, face masks? I was in the girl’s dorm last night, because I need to get Evans for head duties and she had this green face mask on and she said that it helps skin look nice and I was thinking her skin does always look nice,” he started to ramble. “And then I was thinking, do you think she thinks my skin looks nice? Maybe she doesn’t and you know it wouldn’t do to let her down with not nice looking skin. Should I try face masks? What else do muggles use on their face? Are there wizarding face masks I should be using?”

There was silence.

“Are you telling me,” Sirius’s voice went quiet, an almost dangerous quality to it, “that I have been begging you to put moisturizer on your face every morning, to put sunscreen on before you go fly- I EVEN BOUGHT EVERY ONE ON THE QUIDDITCH TEAM SUNSCREEN,” his voice was getting louder and louder, “AND AFTER YEARS- YEARS, JAMES,” he never called him James, “YOU’RE FINALLY INTERESTED BECAUSE YOU SAW LILY FLIPPING EVANS WALKING AROUND WITH GREEN STUFF ON HER FACE?”

There was silence in the dormitory. Remus had closed his eyes, pretending he wasn’t there. Peter had pulled his sheets over his head, trying to physically disappear.

James blinked. Once. Twice. Three times, before-

“Yes?”

There was a loud crashing sound that was heard from the common room. The next morning, the elves who showed up to clean the 7th year Gryffindor boys room were shocked to find sheets everywhere, tangled on the floor, and a broken bed frame. There was black fur on the sheets and a couple holes on the wall, as if something hard had been pushed through, perhaps antlers. In conclusion, it looked as though there had been an odd assortment of animals in the dorm the night before and they had gotten into a fight.

* * *

And if in the future, after graduating from Hogwarts, girl’s spa night grew to include the Marauder’s and significant others, who’s to say that was against the rules.

**Author's Note:**

> leave kudos/comment if you'd like or feel free to hmu @barnespadfoot on twitter or @veriteserum on tumblr


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